Work Text:
1. Jack had gotten soft about scientists. Burke remembered when they ran ops together and needed to bring in the tech experts, O'Neill was the worst at handling them. They were inefficient and tended to talk or move too much–a scary thing when dealing in black ops. That being said, if one of them was in danger, Jack would mother hen any of them. He took the "don't leave behind" to extremes, but then Burke knew some kind of bad shit happened back in Iraq, so he understood that mentality.
What he didn't get was this stark worry in Jack's eyes. He didn't notice it back at the cantina, but now that they were out in the jungle, it was clear. At least one, if not both of this archeologist team were more than just names or work colleagues. Jack was in full "brother-in-arms-in-danger" mode. Burke had been on the receiving end of that once, after he had a raging fever and was stuck behind enemy lines. Jack had pulled his ass out of the fire...back when Jack believed Burke's life was worth saving. So he knew, he recognized.
While Lee was a walking science nerd cliche, Burke wasn't sure how Jack's command let that guy out of the lab. But Jackson was different. When he saw Jackson with O'Neill, he recognized the tongue-in-groove of a well-established teammate. They'd been together for...more than months, probably years.
2. Watching Daniel Jackson with Jack, Burke observed something else. Aside from being teammates, Jackson was more than some technical expert. He was civilian, Burke had seen enough of his dossier to know that, but somehow, someway, Jackson had saved Jack's life...possibly more than once. He caught it in the give and take of the banter. The, it's your turn to be in a life-risking situation. If you saved O'Neill's life once, Jack would resent it as a debt owed. The second time, which--if you were good enough to stay on the types of teams Burke and O'Neill worked with, there would be a second time--Jack would guardedly concede the the obligation. But only those who'd been through hell and back on a few round trips got under all of Jack's layers like this guy Jackson did. And Burke never thought he'd see the day Jack would feel that way around a techie. O'Neill had barely let Burke into that circle once upon a time, and Burke was a field op, for all that he was a civvie. Yep, Jack was soft on scientists, now.
3. There was a hardness to Jack, even underneath the bitterness at what he thought was Burke's betrayal of him once upon a time. Burke knew bitter. He'd lived in this hot humid hellhole for years to protect a traitor's family from the truth. Burke had no family, but guys like Woods and O'Neill, a wife and kids to come home to? How could you let that go? That was everything.
Divorce was common on the black ops route. Too many secrets. It's why he'd never gone the marriage route. But he envied those that did–those that kept it. That's why Woods had felt like such a heartbreak. He was giving up his family for money. That just didn't flow. But O'Neill, he was salt of the Earth. He had that boy, and the pretty blonde lady who accepted the secrets. Plus she fixed up Burke's Chevy once.
"So, how's Sara?"
Jack grunted. Burke wondered if he was just not going to answer anything he asked on principle. Finally there was a response. "Last I heard, good."
That was the marriage he'd bet money on staying. "Aw, Jack, how'd you let that woman go?"
A growl then. "Drop it, Burke."
But Burke didn't take orders from anyone anymore, and national security aside, he'd never been one to stay quiet when running his mouth would work just as well. "You had the American dream, man. The wife, the dog, the kid...you at least get to see Charlie from time to time, right?"
Jack turned then, and the look he gave Burke...Well, Burke'd been the recipient of looks that could kill more than once in his life, but under O'Neill's gaze, Burke would not only be dead, but incinerated. In that moment, he knew. Oh shit. Oh hell. Burke couldn't even imagine. Being exiled meant getting blacklisted from the gossip loop. No one had told him. Burke never would've opened that wound had he known it. He couldn't even imagine. "Ah...I'm sorry, Jack."
"It was a long..." Burke could tell Jack was going to give a cliched response, but Jack seemed to realize Burke would recognize it for the bullshit it was. Finally, almost in a whisper, Burke heard. "Thanks."
4. Burke held Jack back as the medics were securing Lee and Jackson in the plane. "Dude, I checked into you, thought you were flying a desk when I heard they had you stuck in the NORAD mountain. I was sure wrong."
Jack lifted an eyebrow in his old "I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you expression".
"Yeah, I'm not biting. We had a shootout with zombies man. And that?" He pointed to the crate not one but two airmen who had come in on the C-130 were now lifting very gently into the jet. "That big grey Rubik's cube's like some Ark of the Covenant...?"
"Ix-nay on the ubik's-ya ube-kay, Burke." Jack's
Burke absently popped a bubble. "Yeah, right. Well, whatever you're doing, it sure looks to be a helluva ride."
"Oh, buddy," O'Neill clapped a hand on his shoulder and grinned in a manner Burke hadn't seen in years. "You have no idea."
5. Jack was still a man of his word...and a helluva lot more connected than Burke ever realized. Before Burke could turn around and pack his bag, he was getting orders to report to Langley for a choice of assignments.